In 2015, Ukraine passed a law that outlawed symbols from the Soviet era. In the Poltava region of eastern Ukraine, a statue of Friedrich Engels (1820–95) was removed from its central location in the village of Mala Pereshchepina. The statue had been daubed in the vivid yellow and blue of the Ukrainian flag before it was taken down, broken in half at the waist, and dumped on the outskirts of the village. In July 2017, this concrete statue was unveiled in Manchester – on the last day of the city’s International Festival – by Phil Collins, a Turner prize-nominated artist. It had taken Collins almost 2 years to track down this statue of Engels and to negotiate its acquisition. Some have criticised the installation, saying it romanticises communism and totalitarianism and that, because such statues are a tool of Soviet propaganda, it was an insult to the Ukrainian community in Manchester. Others have argued that it is entirely appropriate because Engels is an important figure in the history of the city.
Engels was sent to Manchester in 1842 to work at his father’s cotton textile mill. He began documenting the living and working conditions of ordinary people in the city, describing overcrowded slums, poor sanitation, child labour and brutal factory conditions. He highlighted how industrial capitalism dehumanised workers and concentrated wealth in the hands of a few, including his own family.
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